Astros notes: Season over for Bourn?

ZACHARY LEVINE, Copyright 2010 Houston Chronicle |
September 25, 2010

Season over for Bourn?

Echoing comments his manager made Thursday, Michael Bourn admitted Friday that his season could be over because of an oblique strain.

"There's a chance," Bourn said. "I hope that I'm able to, but at the same time, I'm not going to rush it either."

Out since fouling off consecutive pitches and feeling the strain twice Sunday, Bourn has not run, hit or done any baseball activity. He said he likely would try to jog in the next couple of days and that swinging the bat would be the last step in a potential comeback.

The frustrating part for Bourn is that he has no sense of how close he is.

"I don't really know because I've never done it before, so I can't really gauge how bad it's done," Bourn said. "I still can't throw or anything like that without feeling the pain."

Castro shows desire

Rookiehood has been a struggle for Jason Castro on offense, and he isn't shying from that as he addressed his first season as catcher of the present — the "catcher of the future" tag having faded June 22.

"Coming into this year, there were some adjustments that I tried to make and they never really took hold," Castro said. "It's just part of the game, making adjustments and seeing how they work, and if not, you go from there.

I think I'm kind of at the point where I tried to make some adjustments and they weren't necessarily successful for me, so I'm moving on and staying positive. I've definitely learned a lot."

After showing improvement in the second half of what amounted to a 21/2-month minor league season, Castro struggled on offense from the start in the majors.

He's hitting .204 with on-base percentage and slugging percentage matching at .287, and he believes this offseason will be crucial.

"That's what I need is to take time and pound things out without having to implement them in the game right away, so this offseason's going to be really big for me as far as really fine-tuning some things," Castro said.

Manager Brad Mills said he understands how slow the learning process can be in the big leagues and noticed one thing that he liked about Castro's approach.

"One thing that has really picked up is his desire to scout the other teams we're facing," Mills said. "It's good to see that he's able to see some things for himself and not just hear a scouting report."